The bears reclaimed dominance of the Nigerian equities market as the ASI closed down by 15bps amid publication of uninspiring earnings report of some quoted companies. More sell off ensued in Guinness (-9.88%) in response to the weak Q1 report of the Brewer, while Glaxosmithkline (- 9.38%), Custodian (-3.23%) and Wapco (-1.70%) finished in the red zone. Investor showed no love to some banking players, perhaps due to recent monetary policies pressure as the likes of FBNH (-1.85%), UBA (-1.71%), FCMB (-1.23%) and Guaranty (0.38%) plummeted during the session. Despite market breadth closing in the negative region, FO(+10.00%) rallied as the company proposed a takeover offer of 500,000 units of shares to the shareholdings at the price of N66.25 per shares.
Market turnover remained meagre at N1.5bn ($4.1m), boosted by local crosses in Omomorbank ($0.41 mln), and off shore related trades in Guinness ($0.32 mln) and Guaranty ($0.22 mln). The NSEASI ytd return dipped further to -16.14%. We expect the market to maintain this trading pattern in the next session.
